A Review of Grant Seeking in an Electronic Age
Victoria M. Mikelonis, Signe T. Betsinger, and Constance Kampf
NY: Pearson/Longman, 2004
ISBN: 0-321-16007-X $54.90 pp. 512
Review by Angela Pettit
I. DESCRIBING THE PROBLEM IN CONTEXT
1 Wesley E. Lindahl, Strategic Planning for Funding Raising: How to
Bring in More Money Using Strategic Resource Allocation. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1992. 4-7.
Texas Woman's University
Grant Seeking in an Electronic Age comes to us
via the Allyn & Bacon Series in Technical Communication. The authors
preface their text by acknowledging the purpose of the text and the target
audience(s). The text is divided into six parts and six chapters, each of which
identifies specific outcomes. The target audiences, according to the authors,
are three-fold: “(1) academics and graduate students who are seeking funding
for their own research projects, (2) professionals working in nonprofit
organizations who survive on external funding, and (3) K-12 teachers and
administrators who are seeking additional funding for their schools” (3).
Introduction
II. IDENTIFYING SPONSORS AND FINDING A MATCH
III. GETTING BUY-IN
IV. DESIGNING, WRITING AND REVISING THE PROPOSAL
V. PREPARING THE FRONT AND BACK MATTER
VI. FINAL CHECKS AND AFTERTHOUGHTS
Appendix A: List of Foundation Centers
Appendix B: Sample RFPs
Appendix C: General Mills Foundation
Appendix D: USDA Scoresheet for Reviewers
Appendix E: Sample Proposal
Part One, "Describing the Problem in Context," includes
the first three chapters. The first chapter, "Strategic Planning and Audience
Analysis," walks the researcher/student through the process of
gathering information regarding a non-profit organization's strategic plan for
gaining funding thus requiring the student to identify the organization's
mission, goals, and objectives in order to define its purpose. To further identify
the strategic plan, the authors draw from Wesley Lindahl's1
major questions based on the organization's mission, strategies and budgets to
accomplish the mission and control processes. The chapter then walks through
each of the major questions identifying additional questions the researcher
must ask of the organization:
Chapter 2, "Writing the Need
Statement," builds on the first chapter by asking the students to consider the
strengths and weaknesses of the organization and consider and develop a need
statement. The full purpose of this chapter is to guide the student through the
process of identifying three principle parts of a need statement and ultimately
writing an acceptable need statement for the project/proposal. Here the authors
explain that in order to accomplish the goal of funding, an organization must
have a proposal. They then identify and discuss various groups that write
proposals for financial backing – academics and for-profit businesses. Grant
seeking is placed in a six-step process: 1) Identifying or recognizing a
problem; 2) Generating an idea to solve the problem (the solution); 3)
Determining if the idea furthers the mission and goals of the organization; 4)
Researching potential sponsors to find a match between [your] idea and the
sponsor's priorities; 5) Designing, writing, and submitting a proposal that
follows the sponsor's guidelines; and 6) Implementing [your] solution to the
problem. Understanding the place that the proposal takes in the grant seeking
process allows the student to see that proposals need to be carefully
considered and not approached or composed haphazardly. The authors warn that
although generating ideas is a valuable part of proposal writing, recognizing
and identifying the problem for which the idea is a solution is much more
important at this stage of the process. They also encourage several drafts of
the need statement and provide examples of previous student attempts while
asking students to examine the examples for what they consider to be the three
major elements: 1) Description of the problem; 2) What the student and the
organization plans to do to solve the problem; and 3) Statement of the
student's instrumental purpose or what they want the sponsor to do after reading
the proposal. The remainder of the chapter follows these three elements ending
with a sample need statement, exercise, and writing assignment for the need
statement.
In the third chapter, "Researching Your
Need Statement on the Web, the book aims to help the student learn how to identify
keywords (from the need statement), use basic search strategies for the
Internet, find statistics and/or case studies related to the need statement,
and incorporate the information found on the Internet into a revised need
statement. The authors address each of these goals using examples and probing
questions for the student to consider while using selected keywords from the
need statement. An in-depth explanation of the use of search engines, URLs and
basic search strategies allows students to hone their Internet research skills.
The authors provide two different topics as search examples to explore how and
when to narrow or broaden a search. The chapter, like the previous two,
concludes with a writing assignment.
These three chapters can easily be read, discussed, and worked within a
single class session and homework assignment.
Part Two is labelled "Identifying
Sponsors and Finding a Match" and includes the next two chapters: "Finding
Funding Sources Using Library Resources" and "Finding Funding
Sources on the Web." Both of these chapters aim to help the student/researcher
understand how to search for sponsors who will match the project, the problem
and the population. Chapter 4 concentrates on using libraries as the primary
source for locating different types of sponsors with exercises to assist in
preparing the students to interpret and analyze Request for Proposals (RFP),
Request for Applications (RFA), or program announcements to make the
appropriate match between project and sponsor.
Chapter 5 moves this process from
the hardcopy sources of a library to the cyber sources on the Internet as
supplement material, primarily through federal government funding. The authors
remind the student to use care when searching the Web as URLs change and examples
provided in the text may no longer be valid sites. This chapter also provides
questions the student/researcher can ask of the project in order to broaden or
narrow the scope of the research as keywords may or may not provide adequate or
too much information. This chapter identifies various sources that may be
viable options for funding – government funding sources, federal government
portals, government agency sites, online publications, online foundation
websites, databases, and listservs. Both chapter 4 and 5 end with writing
assignments and chapter 5 adds a small section on strategies for finding
sponsor websites. These two chapters, like the previous three, could easily be
part of a single class session discussion or in class activity.
Part Three, "Getting Buy-In," includes a chapter caled "Writing the Letter of Intent
and Preproposal," and it warns against plowing ahead with
the writing of the proposal as the process is time consuming. The authors
suggest determining how sponsors prefer to be contacted and developing the
rhetorical principles necessary to create the organization's credibility. This
chapter builds on the previous chapter explaining how to use the government
websites to determine the types of problems and solutions the sponsor prefers
to work with and possibly a list of previous projects funded. The authors
provide a sample letter of intent with discussion questions, guidelines for
writing a letter of intent and preproposal and a
writing assignment.
The second chapter in this part, Chapter 7, is "Advance Planning" and it
moves the buy-in from the sponsor to the internal audience of the organization
to identify the key people necessary to help initiate and implement the
project. This chapter addresses rhetorically effective communication as strategic
organizational communication. In
order to effectively communicate the organization's needs and goals, the
authors suggest considering working as a team with definite roles and moving
into an advanced planning strategy. The authors identify the tasks of each of
the three key members of the team, using the previously written need statement,
and suggest further questions for consideration and discussion. A sample
advance planning exercise is provided and follows the suggestions in the
chapter. The writing assignment for chapter 7 follows an advance planning
exercise form provided at the end of the chapter. Although Part Three could be
worked in a single exercise, the development of a rhetorical position and
discussion of further resources might best be divided into two or more class sessions
in order to fully develop ideas and team strategies.
Part Four, "Designing, Writing,
and Revising the Proposal," includes five chapters. Each chapter takes part of the need statement and helps readers develop a draft of the proposal. Chapter 8 is "Drafting
the Proposal Narrative," for instance, and it discusses the eight sections of a proposal and
expounds on the content and purpose of each section. The authors remind the
student/research team that an RFP response requires different information as it
is not an award of a grant but of a contract and offers a sample business plan
training proposal with cover letter. The remainder of the chapter focuses on
the goals and objectives, the logical relationship between the project's goals,
objectives, tasks, and evaluation. The writing assignment for chapter 8 asks
the student/researcher to revisit the guidelines developed from chapter 6 and
builds on the information provided throughout the chapter to help develop the
beginning of the proposal.
Chapter 9 is "Using Software Tools
to Enhance Your Proposal" and it clarifies the differences between goals,
objectives and tasks, the relationships between those tasks, and introduces
project management software to help organize time and resources. This chapter
builds on the work begun in Chapter 8 and adds organizational charts and
exercises to help identify the goals, objectives, and management concerns of
the project through software and hardcopy tools.
Chapter 10 is "Designing the
Monitoring and Reporting Plans," and it continues the tasks of Chapter 9 but
identifies two new tasks: monitoring and reporting on the project, which is necessary for effective formative evaluation. This chapter is a steppingstone to the goals and objectives of chapter
11 and ends with a writing assignment.
Chapter 11 is "Drafting the
Evaluation, Dissemination, and Sustainability Sections." It adds summative evaluation to the formative evaluation discussion in the previous chapter. The authors provide a flow
chart to give a visual cue of the “proposal logic: turning objectives into
outcomes” (270). The authors identify several areas to be addressed in this
chapter thereby offering multiple sections of questions for review and
discussion as well as the writing exercise at the end of the chapter.
Chapter 12 is "Preparing the
Proposal Budget," and it offers a “systematic method” for preparing the project
budget using information created from Chapters 8, 9, 10, and 11. Specific
outcome goals for this chapter are to be able to “distinguish between different
budget categories, prepare a comprehensive proposal budget, and prepare a budge
narrative” (290). The text details the various types of costs (direct and
indirect) incurred in preparing and implementing a project, and suggestions for charts and budget forms with
example budget preparations with explanations followed by a writing assignment.
Although Part Four encompasses five in-depth chapters that build on one
another, these chapters clearly require several weeks for drafting, discussion,
and group activities.
Finally, in Part Five, "Preparing the Front
and Back Matter," we get to the last three chapters that draw on the information from
Chapter 7 for creating the organization's credibility. Chapter 13 is "Preparing
the Organization Information" and instructs the student/research team on how to
identify and stress the organization strengths and accomplishments by
revisiting and assessing the sponsor's needs and then determining the
organization's competitive advantage by identifying and assessing “contenders”
for the sponsor's support. The writing assignment for this chapter is extensive
and would best be done in a group setting.
Chapter 14, "Writing the Cover
Letter, Executive Summary, and Abstract," builds on the need statement from
Chapter 2 and suggests that the purpose of these three documents, the cover
letter, executive summary, and abstract, is to “provide readers with a
functionally useful overview of the problem and solution” and that they should
be written in such a way as to interest the prospective sponsors (343). The
authors offer examples of the cover letter in a variety of functions – letter
emphasizing the problem, emphasizing the solution, to a repeat sponsor
maintaining the relationship, and as a letter of transmittal – with
explanations of each of these forms, reiterating the rhetorical elements for
effective communication.
Chapter 15 is "Preparing the
Appendices," and it defines and explains appendices, how to gather the necessary
information and the physical act of compiling the appendices. The authors
suggest that appendices serve three functions dependent on the sponsor. These
functions are 1) appendices as reference tools, 2) appendices as influencers,
and 3) appendices as a show of commitment and support, with example of each.
The writing assignment for this chapter is to compile and write the necessary
appendices for the organization based on the sponsor's desires in order to
build credibility with the sponsor. Like
part four, the chapters in part five are more in-depth and would require
several sessions of discussion and in class writing activity to be able to produce
the writing assignments although depending on the organization and the
sponsor(s) chosen, several of the chapters might be pooled together.
The last part, Part Six, is "Final Checks and
Afterthoughts." Chapter 16 is "Putting the Proposal Package Together" and it
outlines the necessary sections of the proposal according to a sponsor's
checklist. The author's provide a section in this chapter as well in the event
the sponsor does not provide such a list. Design guidelines or templates are
discussed and sample specification figures are provided. The writing assignment
for this chapter is the actual compiling of the proposal package. This
assignment could easily be broken into two separate class sessions.
Chapter 17, "Preparing for the
Review Panel," outlines how a review panel works and what an organization can
do to make a proposal easier for the panel to read and evaluate. The authors
warn, “there is no universal standard review process” thereby setting the
stage for explanations of different types of proposals based on the previous
chapters suggestive searches according to an organization's needs (395). The writing
assignment for this chapter suggests creating a mock review panel using the
sponsor's guidelines or the sample provided in the text. This is an excellent
suggestion and practice tool.
Chapter 18 is "Responding to the
Sponsor's Decision" and it prepares the student/researcher for the possible
responses they may receive from the sponsor. The authors do warn that most
sponsors do not appreciate status questions of the proposal, therefore
suggesting that the student be patient. The remainder of the chapter addresses
what to do in the event of an acceptance (maintaining the relationship) or
rejection (warm thanks and a request of the reviewers' comments) of the
proposal.
The text concludes with five
appendices to supplement the chapters and writing assignments. The five
appendices include a list of Foundation Center Cooperating Collections in U.S.
Libraries, Sample RFP from the U.S. Department of Labor for a Youth Development
Practitioner Apprenticeship Initiative, General Mills Foundation Information
from the Foundation 1000 Directory, USDA Scoresheet
for Reviewers, and a Sample Proposal: Clothing for Kids.
As the writing on the proposal
becomes more detailed, the exercises and writing assignments become more
focused as well. Examples of previous student attempts at the exercises and
provided charts to complete during the exercises help students to apply the
information learned and stay focused on the task(s) at hand. Each chapter
begins with definite learner outcomes specified followed by detailed
explanations, processes, and examples of what the students/researchers should
accomplish and understand throughout the chapters and writing assignments and
chapter summaries.
The process mapped out by the
authors is not a theory based on minimal classroom trial and error but
successful teaching since 1983 in the
This text is an excellent resource
for technical writing courses or organizations and individuals needing to find
funding in this tumultuous economic world and increasingly electronic age. For a look at how teachers are using this book, see the syllabi of Jim Dubinsky and Rich Rice.